Food processing plants rely on a variety of industrial food processing equipment such as screw extruders. For example, some food processing plants use one or more screw extruders to process corn, wheat, rice, or other grains to form pasta or cereals. Such screw extruders can include a screw that turns within a barrel to convey, mix, and compress the food as it moves through the screw extruder.
During this process, an inner surface of the barrels can become worn and damaged due to a combination of heat and the abrasive properties of food granules under high pressure. If the inner surface of the barrels become so worn so as to substantially increase bore diameter, quality, consistency, and even flavor of the food can be reduced. Barrels can be repaired or replaced, however, it can be difficult and time consuming to determine whether and when a particular barrel requires replacement.